Sadiq Khan may oppose Scotland Yard using Palantir’s AI systems to process criminal intelligence because of his “concerns about using public money to support firms who act contrary to London’s values”.
The mayor of London’s office made the statement after the Guardian revealed last week that Palantir, whose software has been used in Donald Trump’s ICE immigration crackdown and by Israel’s military, has held talks with the Metropolitan police over a wide-ranging contract that could run into tens of millions of pounds.
The US tech company, which was founded by the Trump-supporting billionaire Peter Thiel, demonstrated its systems to senior officers in the intelligence division at the UK’s largest police force last month. Intelligence staff have also been tasked with finding systems that AI could automate to increase productivity.
Khan has some power over any potential contract with the Met because any procurement above £500,000 must come to the Mayor’s Office for Policing and Crime for scrutiny and approval.
Khan’s public expression of concern comes after more than 330,000 people signed petitions in the UK calling for Palantir to be blocked or dropped from UK contracts. The government has a £330m deal for Palantir to process medical data in the NHS and a £240m deal with the Ministry of Defence. The former was signed by the Conservatives and the latter came after Keir Starmer, the prime minister, visited Palantir’s Washington showroom with Peter Mandelson, whose lobbying company, Global Counsel, worked for Palantir.
A spokesperson for the mayor said: “We can’t comment on live procurement processes. However, as a general point the mayor would have concerns about using public money to support firms who act contrary to London’s values.”
The mayor’s office said that in considering any proposal, it reviewed issues, including technical, financial, legal and data protection and that in any decision, its priority was the security of Londoners, including their personal data.
Palantir recently released a 22-point manifesto that one MP described as the “ramblings of a supervillain”. It implied some cultures were inferior, called for an end to the “postwar neutering” of Germany and Japan and predicted a future dominated by autonomous weapons.
The Met is already using Palantir’s AI tools to try to detect rogue officers in its ranks, but that contract is understood to have fallen below the threshold for requiring the mayor’s approval.
The increasing reach of Palantir is causing concern among politicians and campaigners. Thiel, who founded PayPal in the 1990s, has given lectures describing himself as a libertarian who is “worried about the antichrist” and wrote in 2009: “I no longer believe that freedom and democracy are compatible.”
It emerged last week that some Palantir staff have expressed internal dissent…
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